


i spy

by starkly



Series: you don't have to do this alone [21]
Category: Marvel Noir
Genre: Detectives, F/M, Iron Man Noir - Freeform, M/M, Multi, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 02:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13471833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starkly/pseuds/starkly
Summary: Natasha Romanoff is the best in the business. She knows it, everyone else knows it. (At least everyone else in the know, which is very few people indeed.) But when you want information, you come to her. Which is why she isn’t surprised to see General Fury in her office one evening, following the news of adventurer Tony Stark’s latest exploits.





	i spy

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for NaNoWriMo 2017 and posted at [dailyironfamily](http://dailyironfamily.tumblr.com/post/167760185955/day-21-noir-au) on tumblr. This fic was proofread before being posted here but is otherwise unchanged.
> 
> Day twenty-one: noir AU. In a creative interpretation of the prompt, this is an Iron Man Noir Pepper/Tony/Rhodey fic, set post series and featuring the outside POV trope and detective Natasha Romanoff. (I have no idea if she appears in any of the other Noir comics, but if she does, pretend she didn’t.)
> 
> If you haven't read Iron Man Noir (which you should because it's only 4 issues), all you have to know is Tony is a 1930s adventurer whose exploits are written in a magazine, and at the end of the story the team plans to get involved in the war effort.

Natasha Romanoff is the best in the business. She knows it, everyone else knows it. (At least everyone else in the know, which is very few people indeed.) But when you want information, you come to her. Which is why she isn’t surprised to see General Fury in her office one evening, following the news of adventurer Tony Stark’s latest exploits.

Stark was home in New York, hospitalized after his latest venture that ended destroying a whole Nazi air fleet, though the details were still hush hush. The details that weren’t published in the latest issue of  _Marvels_ , at least, and Natasha knows how these things get embellished. Obviously Fury’s interest in the man has something to do with that, and the news that Stark is going to quit the magazine.

Fury wants a profile on Stark before he brings him in on any classified military intelligence, and Natasha promises to get one done within the week. The first day is research, pulling old newspaper clippings and magazine articles. Stark’s got quite the list of achievements, an industrial legacy left by his father on top of his own adventures. His partner in crime is a man by the name of James Rhodes, who features heavily in the latest  _Marvels_  article, which in turn is written by a Pepper Potts, a journalist who normally writes under the name Frank Finlay. These two, and perhaps ex-pilot Edwin Jarvis, are her best way in.

Stark’s still in the hospital, so Natasha makes that her first priority. Getting her hands on a nurse’s uniform is easy, and she blends in seamlessly, stopping at a nurse’s station outside Stark’s room so she can keep an eye on him. The floor is quiet today, and Stark only has one visitor―the Potts woman. She and Stark talk quietly, nothing of interest, at least to Natasha. At one point Potts sees her pass by the door, but only stops her to ask for more water.

When Natasha returns with a fresh pitcher, Pepper is sitting on the edge of Stark’s bed, holding one of his hands in her lap. Natasha stops short, surveying the scene. From what she understands, Potts is a new acquisition to the team, writing only one story after the unfortunate death of Stark’s previous chronicler. Apparently not even a formidable writer like Potts can resist the supposed Stark charm.

“You don’t have to come,” Stark say quietly, fingers brushing over Potts’s wrist. “The front’s no place for a lady.”

“Do I look like a lady, Mr. Stark?” Potts says with a laugh. “Even if you don’t need me as a writer, you could use someone to keep you in line.”

“Then what on Earth would Jarvis have left to do?”

“Patch you up,” Potts suggests, reaching up to gently brush a finger over the bandage on Stark’s nose. “You seem to need it a lot.”

“Which brings me back to my original point. It’ll be dangerous, this job Fury’s got.”

“I’m no stranger to danger, Mr. Stark. I can take care of myself.”

Stark lets go of her hand and reaches for the glass on his bedside table, which is Natasha’s cue to walk into the room with the pitcher. She doesn’t meet either of their eyes, though she does take the opportunity to check Stark’s medical chart before ducking out so she can get a sense of when he’ll be released from the hospital.

* * *

Stark spends his first few days out of the hospital presumably preparing to go back out to Europe. Natasha switches wigs, picks up a pair of glasses, and meets with a secretary friend of hers who works at Stark Industries. Security in this place is atrocious, and she’d tell Fury to inform Stark of that fact if it wasn’t working out so well in her favor.

James Rhodes comes in every day to meet with Stark, and while most of the time they’re hidden away in Stark’s office, Natasha catches them in the hall late one evening when most of the employees have already gone home.

“Look,” Stark says, voice low. He and Rhodes are around the corner, and Natasha presses close to the wall and listens. “Before all this, you were talking about quitting. And I get it, we’ve had some good times and some absolutely terrible times. I can’t in good conscience keep putting you in danger if you truly wish to leave.”

It’s interesting, Natasha notes, that Stark seems determined to push his friends away when he could use their help. All of them seem the sort inclined to run towards danger instead of away from it.

“Tony…” Rhodes replies, and there’s a pause. “Honestly, I probably should. But if you’re intent on doing some good for the world, like you said, I can’t leave your side.”

“Pepper wants to come too,” Stark says.

“To report?”

“To keep me in line.”

Rhodes chuckles. “I thought that was Jarvis’s job.”

There’s another silence, longer this time, and Natasha risks peeking her head around the corner. Only to quickly whip back around, though she’s confident neither of them saw her, considering they were awfully busy kissing each other. Well, so much for her theory that Stark was sweet on Potts. She hopes Potts knows that too, or things could get messy if Stark can convince Fury to let him bring his whole team along on whatever secret mission he’s proposed.

Determining nothing else of value is left to gain here, Natasha silently slips away, leaving the two men to their own private business.

* * *

Stark has a party the following week celebrating his latest  _Marvels_  adventure, because of course he does. Natasha goes blonde and picks out a low cut dress to draw attention away from her face. Potts and Rhodes are both there, though it seems Jarvis declined to attend. Natasha will have to look into this mysterious Jarvis herself soon, at this rate.

As parties go, it’s certainly nice, lots of good food and rich socialites. The editor of  _Marvels_  is there too, and he spends most of his time keeping Stark distracted begging him to stay with the magazine. The party gives her the perfect opportunity to go around and casually gossip about Stark while keeping an eye on him. Stark is a gracious host, and he’s perfectly polite to everyone, even the  _Marvels_  man, who Natasha would have gotten annoyed with in under three minutes herself.

Late in the evening, as the party winds down, she sees Rhodes and Potts slip away together, going out into the gardens. Intrigued, Natasha follows them, the foliage giving her plenty of cover to eavesdrop.

“Don’t tell me,” Rhodes is saying to something Pepper had asked as Natasha gets closer, “he’s trying to get you to stay behind too.”

“Of course.” Potts sounds slightly frustrated, not the confident, cocky woman Natasha is used to hearing. “He’s really enough of an idiot to do this alone, and after that talk we had.”

“What’d you tell him?”

“That I was going with him, of course. I assume you did the same.”

Rhodes doesn’t reply, but Potts doesn’t say anything else either, so Natasha assumes he nodded or gave some other indication of assent. The pair move deeper into the garden, and Natasha waits a moment to follow.

“You’ve already had one bad run-in with the Nazis,” Rhodey says, and Natasha moves so she can see them, the two sitting on a stone bench by an elaborate fountain that slightly drowns out their words. “You sure you want to risk another?”

“Oh, not you too,” Potts mutters, “I’m not―”

Natasha can’t hear the rest, and she frowns and moves around a bunch of bushes, trying to find a better position. When she looks back through the leaves at the fountain, Potts is kissing Rhodes, one of his hands clasped between hers like she’d held Stark’s hand in the hospital.

Honestly, this is  _not_  the kind of drama Natasha expected to find when she started trailing Stark.

And it’s certainly not the kind of information Fury would be interested in. She sighs and draws back around the bushes, debating what to do. If Stark brings Potts and Rhodes with him on the Latveria mission, all that matters is that they can function as a team and get the job done. That could still very well be the case, but…Stark’s paramour making time with his pretty journalist (Natasha still hasn’t determined Stark’s feelings in that regard) behind his back does not create a conducive work environment.

She should’ve just closed the door in Fury’s face and told him to go somewhere else.

* * *

In the end, the file she deposits on Fury’s desk doesn’t contain anything about any illicit affairs on anyone’s part. She keeps the focus on Stark, writes up an evaluation that paints him as a loyal patriot, and recommends him for the Latveria job.  _Along_  with his team. Fury squints at her like he doesn’t believe any of it, but Natasha just shrugs and tells him if he doesn’t like her work, he can hire someone else.

Apparently, Fury was banking on a favorable report, because Stark, Rhodes, and Potts are outside his office as she exits. There’s an older man with them, who Natasha assumes is the mysterious Jarvis. Stark just nods at her as she walks past, but Potts stops talking to Jarvis and says,

“Wait a minute, wasn’t that the nurse from the hospital?”

Natasha grins and doesn’t stop walking.

* * *

Natasha sees them again, three years later. She’s in London between missions, as Fury, goddamn him, had somehow swayed her away from her private practice and into his employ. To her surprise, Stark and his crew are seated at a table in the very same bar, looking somewhat worse for the wear but in astonishingly good spirits.

Jarvis gets up to get them more drinks, and Natasha watches carefully from her corner seat, curious despite herself how things had played out. They’re all clearly still friendly, so if Stark had discovered their deception, he didn’t take it too poorly.

Potts laughs at something he says, reaching over and setting her hand atop of Stark’s on the table. He flips his hand over, entwining their fingers, and Natasha frowns around the rim of her glass. Perhaps Stark had found out and was willing to overlook their indiscretion, fond as he seemingly still is for Potts.

Stark leans back in his chair, stretching his other arm over his head, and when he sets it down it’s across the back of Rhodes’s chair, fingers brushing against Rhodes’s shoulder. Rhodes, instead of getting annoyed, leans into the touch, and Natasha’s eyes go wide as the revelation hits her.

Nobody was stepping out on anyone. Lord, is she an idiot. It’s a good thing she didn’t put anything about this in Stark’s file, Fury would have to fire her on the spot.

Well, she muses as she downs the remains of her beer in one long draught, at least everything worked out all right for everyone.


End file.
